The Endless, Empty Sky
by zuzumotai
Summary: A dream waiting a lifetime to be fulfilled. A chance encounter. Are they lucky to meet, or unlucky? Is this destiny? Two young women come to Ikebukuro to teach English at Raira Academy, and find their destinies. It's easy to become enchanted in this city of dreams and broken hearts... But is such a dangerous dream worth pursuing? [Shizuo x OC] [Izaya x OC]
1. Lucky Or Unlucky?

**_"In my hometown, the sky seemed endless . . . but there was nothing to see." _**

Tokyo- the city of lights, the city of romance, and the city of the supernatural. That evening, Tokyo was abuzz with life and light. Blank faces of strangers passed obliquely by, unnoticed by the endless swirl of person after person, each bearing their own story, their own life, their own tiny candlelight in the darkness.

Dani Madigan and Lemon Emery were two such flickering lights, poring over a map with their eyes straining, hands grasping, fingers pointing. Having just departed the airport, the two of them were jetlagged and travel worn, and it showed in the slump of their shoulders and the shadows under their eyes. They came together, but they came for different reasons. The two old friends' minds buzzed with the excitement of a new place, and a new life.

It had not been easy to convince aloof, daydreamy, clever, and attention deficit Dani Madigan to leave her cozy home far away on a whirlwind adventure across the world. In fact, Lemon Emery had spent the better half of her life working the idea into her friend's brain through emails laden with romantic images of skyscrapers and shrines (and the occasional male model or actor for good measure), and her heart was still brimming with pride at her success. Bright, coarse, and full of dreams, it was Lemon's idea for the two of them to enroll in the English!Go! language program, landing them a spot in Tokyo to teach for a contract of two to three years. They were fresh out of college, just 21 years old, with birthdays coming up fast.

The two were like two sides of the same coin- one nearly sickly pale, dark shoulder length hair, fashionable clothing, taller and buxom; the other short, tan, all hip, long cherry red hair, stockings and doe eyes. A nearly completely online relationship had spoiled them all these years. They shared similar tastes, but never the same opinion on them.

For the moment, however, their excitement was mutual.

"We don't start work until tomorrow, so if you're not too tired, we can explore the area around the school we'll be working at," Lemon suggested slowly, taking every precaution to not overwhelm her friend. She spent so many years building up this trip- it wouldn't do to have her backing out of it just as they stepped off the plane.

"As long as we can get some food on our way to the apartment," Dani replied with an uncharacteristic brightness. With that, the two of them were off, boarding the subway and making their way straight to Ikebukuro.

One might have said that they were lucky, to be stationed in that city. One might have also said that they were the unluckiest pair in the world, to have to live in such a place. One might have also said that it was simply destiny- that they always belonged there, in this small town fraught with gang wars and motorbike monsters of the night. They were only just arriving to their destinies.

But there was no arguing the fact that Dani Madigan and Lemon Emery were the new English Teaching Assistants at Raira Academy, and that they, so drawn to light, life, and excitement, would fall into the desolate and desperate drama of Ikebukuro's every day life.

Their first taste of drama was just outside the West Exit of Ikebukuro Station. Dani was just pointing out a McDonald's excitedly, when, as if the grasping of Lemon's arm and the wild gesturing of her hand in the air had triggered it, the statue of Colonel Sanders flew across the skyline in a miraculous arc, crashing and skidding down the street and narrowly missing them.

The poor, beaten mascot of KFC lay with his face in the hot asphalt, a black skid marking the side of his body. Defeated at last, by his one true enemy- the golden arches.

There was no screaming. The torrent of nobodies, NPCs, stunned into silence by the defeat of the invincible plaster cast of Colonel Sanders tumbled out of the station entryway and off in every wild direction. Their necks were like rubber as they craned them to spot the source of the disruption, even as their eyes glowed with terror. Lost in the sea of faces, Dani and Lemon did not move. They simply stared in disbelief at the mangled body of the Colonel before them.

"IZAYA, YOU SLIMEBALL!" The deep, tiger's roar of a voice blasted down the street like the crack of a shotgun. "WHERE DID YOU GO?" A tall, blond man in a waistcoat, bow tie, and scuffed black shoes slid around the corner, as if in pursuit of Colonel Sanders himself. His fists were clenched, the knuckles taught and white with rage, and his eyes were inhuman.

The snakelike body of a second man draped in a long, fur trimmed coat slipped out from behind Dani and Lemon, out into the street, raising his arms above his head in mock surrender. "Shizu-chan, I told you," he laughed loudly, callously, voice ringing in the ears of the innocent bystanders. "I don't have time to play with you today! Just let me go about my merry business!"

"Oh, don't worry." The great, leering attacker looked around for a weapon. His eyes fell on a metal road barrier welded into the ground. "I'm not here…" One arm shot out, the hand clutching at the barrier. With a great shriek of metal, he ripped it out of the ground with great ease, "TO PLAY!"

This man, Heiwajima Shizuo, was not a normal human. Every inch of his body seemed to tremble with the overwhelming desire to kill Orihara Izaya, the raven haired man with dark, endless eyes like a fox, and a twisted, sinister grin befitting of a devil.

"You've got to be kidding me," Heiwajima Shizuo's target said with disbelief.

It happened so quickly. There was little time to react. One moment, the two men were staring each other down with death in their eyes, while bystanders shuffled in a hurry out of their way. The next, Heiwajima Shizuo lurched into action, diving with malicious attempt at the foxfaced man in the fur lined jacket.

In that same moment, however, Lemon Emery dove forward. Whether her intention was to stop the man, to block him, or if she simply had poor timing in her attempt to move out of the way, Lemon moved between the men just as Heiwajima Shizuo's arms swung the mangled road barrier around like a baseball bat.

A flash of horror and desperation shot across the man's eyes as the red girl cut across his vision, and he reeled, struggling to hold back, willing his body to stop before he smashed the divider- aimed at Orihara Izaya's midsection, straight into the girl's shock-lined face.

He did not hit Lemon Emery.

A moment later, Dani Madigan lay crumpled on the ground, unconscious, her hands clutched weakly at her chest. Lemon Emery stood, unharmed. The wrought metal fell from Heiwajima Shizuo's hands, and the color fled from his face. Orihara Izaya, a cold grin spreading across his face, made his getaway.

Were they lucky, now?

Or were these two perhaps the most unlucky pair in Ikebukuro at that moment?


	2. Accidental Service

_**"I'm right here. You're over there. If I'm your savior, then you're mine." **_

The wrought metal divider fell from Heiwajima Shizuo's hand, and a lost look of desperation came across his face.

"Dani!" Lemon fell over her her friend, cradling the heavy, limp form in her arms and feeling for a wisp of breath. "Can you hear me? Are you alright?" She babbled in English, but Dani Madigan was unconscious.

Heiwajima Shizuo was sure he had killed her with that blow. An innocent tourist, a girl that just got in the way. Did he run? No. He had run once before, and Heiwajima Shizuo was done with running. His hands trembled, he struggled to control his breathing, and one word fell out of his lips, onto the ground, flat and hard. "Fuck." It wasn't his fault, he wanted to scream. He tried to hold back, he tried so desperately not to hurt anyone, but he had been so caught up in his pursuit of Izaya that now…

The red haired girl, like a burst of flame, whipped her head up at him, and said very loudly, "Hospital!" She spoke clearly and crisply, with just the hint of an accent.

Shizuo, shocked, looked down at her, still trembling. There was hatred in her eyes, and under the effect of that hot glare, he steeled himself, drawing his shoulders together and becoming rigid. "Hah?" he asked.

"Please," Lemon repeated curtly. "Where is the hospital?" Her eyes searched his, and as Shizuo cast his eyes coolly away, tears began to well up in her eyes.

It was an accident. Lemon knew it was, and Shizuo knew that she knew, but it didn't change what had just occurred.

He couldn't control himself.

She was about to give up hope on the stranger when he suddenly stooped down and scooped Dani into his arms. "I'll take you," he growled.

His voice was heavy with regret.

Dani was passed like a dead, limp thing over to the nurses, who set her into a wheelchair and took her back to examine her. Shizuo and Lemon stood in stony silence in the waiting room for nearly an hour, their faces turned away from her and their bodies stiff. Neither of them moved an inch, until a buxom young nurse bustled out, a cool, reassuring smile curling her face.

"She's very bruised, and very tired, but other than a broken rib, there is no internal damage," she said soothingly. "We will keep her here overnight, and prescribe something to help with the swelling and the pain, but she will be fine."

Fine. Fine. All he needed to hear was that the girl would be fine. The tension uncoiled from Shizuo's shoulders- they fell, slack and relaxed. His hands found their ways into his pockets, where he palmed a box of cigarettes, feeling in the buzzing of his brain the overwhelming need to take a long smoke break. She was fine. He still hadn't killed anyone. He turned to leave without a word.

"Where do you think you're going?"

Shizuo paused, and peered over his shoulder, but saw nothing. He turned around to get a better look, and then, seeing the top of a red, pigtailed head, he looked down. The other girl. He had nearly forgotten she was there. "Home. What's it to you?" He sounded more guarded than he meant to, as he spoke to her in a matter-of-fact way.

"You hit my friend in the chest with a metal road barrier," Lemon said curtly. She meant to follow up with 'The least you could do is tell me your name,' but couldn't quite remember the phrase for it in Japanese, and instead, asked politely, "What's your name?"

Another soaring lightning strike of guilt shot through him. Removing a hand from a pocket, he pointed at his own face, eyebrows lifting. "Heiwajima Shizuo," he said slowly.  
Lemon Emery nodded sagely. She mirrored the motion, lifting one hand and pointing directly at her nose. "Emery Lemon." Then, "It's nice to meet you, Heiwajima-san."

Lemon Emery. He wouldn't remember that name, the next time they met.

But he would remember the look on her face.

Despite the fact that Heiwajima Shizuo had nearly murdered Lemon Emery's best friend on their first day in Japan, effectively ruining her plans of making the next two to three years the best they could possibly be, Lemon was smiling at him. Her eyes darted up to his face, and then away again, but her warm and thoughtless smile remained. She dropped her hand back to her side, and went on smiling, waiting for his response.

Shizuo Heiwajima did not smile back. "Nice to meet you," He returned despondently, and then he turned and left.

When Dani Madigan woke the next morning, it was to a sharp pain in her chest, and the realization that she lay in an unfortunately sterile and unhomely room. She was surrounded by whitewashed walls and swathed in white cloth- bandages and a hospital gown. The bed beneath her was too hard and too hot. The smell of medicine and sickness made her stomach churn, and she lay there, staring blankly at the ceiling.

She thought she was alone, but in actuality, she was not. Orihara Izaya sat in the chair by her bed, inattentively sharpening a small silver switchblade. He looked up, and seeing her eyes open, stood and towered over the girl. "Oh, so you're awake." He was speaking in heavily accented English, no doubt for her benefit.

Orihara Izaya's head cocked to the side in bemusement, and he folded his arms, slipping the switchblade somewhere within the folds of his jacket. "Before you ask what happened, let me tell you.

You thought you could pull your friend to safety by jumping between Shizu-chan and me, right? Shizu-chan, trying to be equally noble and save you from himself, tried to stop the moment you stepped in front of him." He sneered. "I have to say, watching him swing that thing at such a speed and try to slow down but still end up crashing into you… it was pretty hilarious!"

Dani spoke, and her voice was a hoarse grumble. "Shizu-chan?" She repeated. "Who is that?"

"Oh, you really don't know?" Orihara Izaya said in mock surprise. Malicious joy glimmered in his eyes. "Heiwajima Shizuo, the fabled strongest man in Ikebukuro? Really, you're lucky it was only a broken rib. Encounters with that monster usually go off far worse, Dani Madigan."

Dani turned her head toward the dark haired, dark eyed man, and her stare was cold, but interested. There was no shock in her mind. "So what do you want? How do you know my name?"

The questions weren't even out of her mouth before he removed her wallet from his jacket pocket and dropped it onto her lap. "The nurses left this sitting right on your bedside table. Sorry, I couldn't help myself." He didn't sound the least bit apologetic. "I got curious. If you're upset that I checked your pockets while you were unconscious, you can take that up with me later. Right now, that's not really important."

He leaned closer, his eyes connecting with her's, that sickening grin frozen there. "What's important is, what compelled you to do something like that? What made you think 'I should step between the man who just ripped a metal barrier out of the road and the man he is pursuing'? Why not save your own skin? Are you that stupid?"

"Maybe I am," she said sarcastically, her throat dry. "Yeah, it was pretty stupid. I thought about just walking away, but who else is going to protect that midget? She thinks she's tougher than she is. She might have died."

Izaya took in a sharp breath, then chuckled cruelly. "Not only did you jump in and get yourself hurt, you don't even have a good reason for it. Letting your body rule itself without putting any thought into things… it takes some of the humanity out of you."

"Don't talk like you know me," Dani shot, unfazed.

Izaya looked at her.

He looked at her long and hard.

"I actually stuck around just so I could thank you," he finally offered, tauntingly.

"Thank me? Why?"

"After he tragically smashed you into the ground instead of me, Shizu-chan dropped you off here, and then ran off in a panic." He shrugged. "I guess you shook him up pretty badly. With any luck, he'll stay hidden away for good and die of shame."

Dani kept silent.

He paused, and looked at her again.

"A man can dream, can't he? Anyway, thank you, Madigan-chan. You've been a real help. Thanks to you, I didn't have to lift a finger this time. And just to prove how grateful I, Orihara Izaya am, I paid for your hospital bills. Someone who's just moved into this town can't afford something like that, right?"

Dani didn't say anything.

"Nothing, huh?" Izaya sneered, and then finally, slid back into speaking Japanese. "I'll let the doctor know on my way out that you're awake. May we meet again…. bye-bye!"


End file.
